My two oldest girls were touring with their choir today which left me home with my two youngest for most of the day. Perfect day to start a very large project! Right? Sure, whatever.

The challenge of the day was this window:

The project started like this:

It then morphed into this:

Whereupon I remembered that these shades require weight rods, not these little corner squares. Doh!

After doing some internet research and realizing all the missing parts to make two of these shades was going to cost around $60 before shipping, I became discouraged. I then realized I could probably make do without all the $60 parts. At least for now. I took the girls with me to Joann's Fabrics where we spent $5 on cord and cord pulls. While there I realized I don't need the cord stoppers after all because I'm planning to get cord cleats to attach to the walls. So that was $10 off the list. Buying the cord at Joann's instead of online also saved another $10. I realized I could wait on the weights and see what other heavy rod I can come up with sometime later. $30 off the list.

But then I had to leave. We met some friends at the park to fly kites, then I had to pick up the older girls from their 8 hour day of choir touring (the bus was late and I was frustrated by that). I ran them to softball practice and then 7 hours after I last stopped working on this shade I was able to start again. I spent the entire movie of Singing in the Rain measuring and marking where the ring tape would go. I then started pinning on rings:

I got this far and realized I'm 7 rings short. I have to go back to Walmart tomorrow and buy another length of ring tape. Drat! After that I have to sew the goofy rings on and then get myself a long 1"x2" board and screw eyes. Then I can start stringing cord.

Did I mention it's been 10 years since I've made these and forgot all the details that go into them? If not, let me say it again: a lot of details go into making these.

But I think it will be worth it when I get it done.